SOLD! To us!

We signed the papers on our home. Beauty of it all is that we don't have to move! Though my friend offered to come help me move a box or two from one room to the other. Gee thanks!

When we first moved in five years ago, we had to take out the hideous orange shag carpets in both bedrooms because Sunny and Grace were waking up every morning with stuffy noses. Our family has never suffered from allergies before. We were amazed how they woke up the next day fine, once we removed the carpet. The bonus was the beautiful hardwood floors underneath. Who on earth would cover these floors in the first place? I guess back then that was the 'in' thing to do, and now the trend has come back to original flooring.  Since we were renting we figured we were pushing it to remove the bedroom carpets, so we left the non-orange {thank God} and non-shag {thank God, again} living room carpet alone. I suppose we could live with the industrial teal carpet.  I kept telling my husband the first thing I was going to do was pull up the carpet as soon as we signed on the house.  I came home that evening, and lo and behold, there was a section the size of a large area rug cut out of the middle of the living room!  Bye bye ungodly carpet, hello hardwood floors!



There's a ton of work that needs to be done on the house.  It is definitely a fixer-upper.  I wish we had the money for  HGTV Fixer Upper's Chip and Joann to come in and renovate.  Wouldn't that be sweet?!  Oh well, for now it's livable.  Added bonus is to have a plumber/HVAC technician/handy man in the house.  It'll all get done eventually.

We only have one bathroom, so we are going to have to get creative on how to remodel without losing the use of the facilities in the meantime because at this point in my life, I can only hold it so long. Until we have the money to do that, we will make do with some easy fixes like removing the carpet {bad idea--carpet in the bathroom--bad.idea} We'll finish removing the cartoon contact paper that is fortunately only on one wall {although it was kind of fun pulling out the markers and coloring up the wall before we started taking the nasty stuff down}.  We'll finish sprucing up with a coat of paint.  Honestly, have you ever seen anything like this?



Our house was built in 1912.  Now, don't go getting your hopes up on thinking it looks all vintagy or anything, because it is anything but.  It has been a severely neglected rental for many years, and I know it's going to take awhile to get it looking decent.  Besides removing the carpet, there are more cosmetic things we can do that will cost us nothing more than some paint and elbow grease.  The ceiling is those rectangular thingies you see in an old 70's office building with a single fluorescent light in the middle of the room.  But above that is another foot or so up to the original ceiling {there we go, that's what I'm talking about!} Between the floor and ceiling and a coat of neutral paint, we'll be able to whip the living room into a decent space.

I have an old buffet as well as a black walnut dresser with mirror and chest of drawers that were my mom's that I want to incorporate into the living room. I'm thinking of putting the chest of drawers and the dresser right next to each other making them into our entertainment center. I'm hoping it'll turn out looking cohesive and like what I'm envisioning in my head.You know how that can go. Sometimes there's a vast difference between actuality and what was in the ol' noggin.

I am using my mom's old Singer sewing machine cabinet--minus the sewing machine--as an end table. I think it's cool when I walk into the house and that piece with its filigree metalwork is the first thing I see. Makes me feel good being able to display a piece of my family history. That's what I am going to try to achieve with the rest of the furniture.

Now the kitchen is another story.  It is 'L' shaped. Why? Who would make an 'L' shaped kitchen? Well, since you asked, I will tell you why. Because the granddaughter of the previous owners knocked on our door last summer with a picture of her grandmother standing on the front step and I asked her why. After visiting with her for a few minutes {and realizing she was getting all reminiscy and nostalgic on me} I invited her in to see inside the house. I have always been perplexed as to where everyone slept, as the front part of the house was Granny's beauty shop with a walk-through closet into a bedroom. I knew they had two sons. Where the heck did they put everyone? She explained the living arrangement between Grandpa and Granny. Grandpa's bedroom was part of that 'L' shaped kitchen. The boys slept, as was common back then, on the back porch {thank you, I can now sleep in peace}.

There is much to be done, but the home is ours!

It's All Good!

Brenda